30 Days of Hopeful: Day 24

Let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

The most fitting description of the Christian life can be summed up in one word: war. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see the theme of the “fight of faith.” Did you know that hope can help us fight our battles? The Bible tells us that hope is part of our armor. Ephesians 6:11-17 describes each piece of our spiritual armor in detail, with hope being the helmet that protects our minds.

The most vulnerable part of any soldier in battle was his head. Archaeologists have learned that helmets were “purpose-built” to protect the wearer against the specific weapons he faced. Ancient helmets were pointed at the top, to deflect the downward force of a club. But as time went on and the ax became popular as a weapon, the shape of the helmet was modified to counter the cutting edge of a downward-falling blade.

This got me to thinking. Our heavenly Father knows exactly what kinds of weapons we face in our struggle against the forces of darkness. He has “purpose-built” the kind of helmet we need to protect our mind. The mind, of course, is the seat of our will and emotions. It’s our command-central.

The enemy wants to attack our mind. Hisfirst assault is to try and steal our sense of being known and loved by God. Our assurance of salvation. It makes sense that God would give us the “hope of salvation” as our helmet. When we know that we are loved and accepted by God by grace, saved through faith in the shed blood of His son, then “no weapon formed against us” can harm our mind. We have this hope of salvation as our helmet, and we can rest assured that God is not angry with us. Daily, we would do well to remind ourselves that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:8,9).